Every so often we look to find out what it is that our customers love about us and what they think we can improve on. Now its not really in our interests to tell you about the later, but don’t be surprised if a few of those weaknesses appear as strengths on later versions of this list, because that is the very objective of collecting feedback. If we aren’t continually improving our products, our services, and our customer relations then we don’t deserve to be No. 1 in this market.
So here they are, in no particular order, and with no special fanfare, for your consideration and information: The top 6 reasons our franchisees love working with us.
6 reasons why you will have success with the Thrive Success Franchise Model (TSFM)
1. Credibility
For some it is our connections to universities, and others the quality of the material that we provide, but for others it is simply the ongoing attraction to customers/ parents of being associated with and accredited by a European company. While we don’t especially feel this should be the case, after all where you are from is rarely an indicator of your true value, we are not embarrassed to benefit from the assumption of ‘European Quality’ because we know that the service, we deliver exceeds rather than cedes to the mythology.
2. Interactive Customer Experience
Its not a word we would have used to describe our pre post testing system until someone else said it and now we can’t get it out of our heads. It is so logical when you think about it. The ‘real’ customers (the ones who give you their money) are the parents and the pre post test feels ‘interactive’ to them. They get to see in real time the improvement in their child as well as getting feedback specific to their child and what they can do to improve. This one is a no brainer and will perhaps stay on the list forever: our customers love us, because we make it easy for their customers to love them, by literally helping them to better support the ones that they really love; their children.
3. Credibility
The standardised program format and top-quality training for franchisees (including the video library resource) make it simple for trainers to learn, accredit and deliver the Thrive Success Mighty Kids programs. Additionally, because people are delivering the program all over the world it is likely if you do come across an issue, it will be one, we have already seen and solved before.
4. The Guru Factor
Now we try not to make too much of this one because we wouldn’t want Johannes to get a big head but, when the guy leading your program is the one who pioneered the field its hard for franchisees and trainers not too feel a little bit special when some of the weekly mentoring sessions are led by him. All our trainers are good, but the wow factor of realising your mentor for the week is the man himself is a real buzz for our customers and we completely understand why.
5. Support systems
So this one is a little special as it really falls into two parts. When we asked our customers about the support they received from our staff and how well we performed on problem solving and general customer service enquires: we had a whole group who couldn’t answer the question because they had ‘never used them’. Between the material and training quality, the regular updates, and the interactivity with other franchisees some of our customers believed that they had never had need of our customer support facilities, but in reality, were interacting with them all the time. The best form of customer support is the one that helps you avoid the problems before they occur. Of course, the existence of the second group shows that sometimes additional support is required, but we are pleased to say that the feedback from this group feels less like it is from customers and more like it has come from fans.
The Power Hour principle
So, what on earth is a power hour I hear you ask? It is a great motivational tool that share and occasionally curate for customers. In the most rudimentary form, the ‘Power Hour’ is a time management and motivational tool (one we use ourselves). Whatever the task, whether sales, administration, or just writing an article for the company blog… …we have found one of the best techniques is to set ourselves a challenge for one hour to achieve X.
This starts to get really interesting when X is something that can not only be quantified personally but can be measured against others. How about we all get together and make sales calls for an hour and see who takes the gold medal? Then let’s see what we can learn from each other about improving our own effectiveness on tasks. So in short the ‘power hour’ is a way for generating motivation and improvement either independent (intrinsically) or with others (external/competitive) and it’s a lot of fun.
So that’s our list as of August 2021, but we will keep asking the questions, keep evaluating the feedback we receive, and inevitably we will keep updating this list.
If you haven’t already let us know what you love about working with ISSA and perhaps even let us know what would make it even better in the future. That’s how we can “Thrive Success” together!
It is never a good time for change; and it is always a good time for change. The challenge every business owner has faced is: balancing the opportunities that come with making an evolution; with the risks that come from moving away from the tried, test, old and reliable strategies that got them through their journey so far.
The two mistakes business owners do
The two biggest mistakes a business owner could make were: not changing with the times and changing too soon or too drastically. Both these errors carry similar penalties and so for years every independent business owner had to determine what was right for them, make judgement calls, weigh the options, and ultimately live with the consequences of their decisions (or indecisions) whether those outcomes were positive or negative.
The Power of change
But this is “a time like no other”. Due to Covid-19 and the shutdowns that came with it around the world; businesses have already had change enforced upon them. At best businesses have had to change some elements of their service and at worst they have had to close. In our business of education, the second has regrettably been the more common.
This of course has created an imbalance that has never existed previously, not even when businesses first started up. For the first time in the lifecycle of many education businesses there is only opportunity and all the threats have already been manifested or surpassed. In short, in this moment in time, there is only upside. Where previously introducing new things or directions could have been a risk, now it is an additional chance to attract back old customers and win new ones in a marketplace that has experienced a hard reset.
That means that everyone is in the same place and the changes, that previously concerned you, could now be the catalyst that drives your next phase of success. Of course, this is not true of all change. The fundamentals of good business have not changed after all. The changes you make in your business must make sense in your market; not the market you used to be in by the way; but the one you now find yourself competing in.
Changes in the early childhood sector
The primary years and pre-school education markets have changed enormously in the last two years, but it is a change that not everyone will recognise and even fewer will take advantage of.
No serious construction manager would ever try to build a sky scrapper without first digging deep foundations but, to an extent, that is what every educator of young children will be asked to do over the next few years. Now, to be clear, its is not the academic foundation that is lacking (although this will require some significant attention also) it is the social one. During, what is perhaps, the most significant time for developing social awareness, appreciation, and communication skills; our children have instead be isolated. They have not invented and played games, nor have they fallen out with one another and found resolutions, they have not learned new words from each other or been given the opportunity to practise them, they have not made new friends, and they have not been afforded the opportunity to elaborate on the relationships that already exist.
This is not a deficit that will show up in a test or examination of what they have learned, but it is a diminishment of everything they have the potential to be in future; unless, of course, there was a way for them to reclaim some of that lost knowledge and experience. What children returning to school after two years will need, almost more than anything else, is to learn how to interact with each other again. This is where ISSA comes into its own.
ISSA makes a difference
What makes ISSA different from everyone else who will inevitably come into this marketplace is that our solutions are already tried, tested, re-tried and yes re-tested many times over. Unlike almost every other business who will be getting into this market in response to the arrival of an enormous new opportunity, ISSA has been in this market for years. None of this is new to us, its just that the market opportunity got a hell of a lot bigger, and because we already knew this market, we saw it first and planned for this moment before our competitors even realised it was happening.
That is not to say there aren’t other companies, even bigger companies, who will service this need in the future; but what we can say for sure is that this is a moment of perfect alignment. The time is approaching where, as business owners, you will have a chance to take risks with almost no downside, and it is coinciding with the emergence of a new market need that you could become one of the first to fulfil.
This is our solar eclipse moment. An alignment so perfect is rare perhaps once in a lifetime, but the opportunities that come with it cannot be overstated. The skies may have darkened for a while but its about to get bright again: the risk is low, the rewards are high, it is a time for innovators, and a time for pioneers; it is “a time like no other”.
Why our trainer accreditation is so important to the long term success of your business, and why we must work together to protect our brand.
A brand is a living creature all to itself and it can thrive, survive, suffer, or die. No brand is fixed in its condition and they all must work to maintain and improve constantly to retain their place amongst their customers favoured suppliers.
Brands are sustained by reputation and reputation is determined by performance against expectation and by consistency of that expectation. If we buy a brand name product we already know if we have bought on quality or on price, but we can be pleasantly surprised, or the opposite is the product does not match the expectation we had. The customer experience, which is very often sharded and collaborated then leads to the next iteration of brand expectations; and the brand has evolved either positively or negatively.
“A rising tide lifts all boats” – John F Kennedy 1963
Positive brand reinforcement is the key to long term success in many businesses. Once a brand reaches a certain status within a marketplace it becomes aspirational rather than optional. Some products become so dominant that people are often surprised to discover that friends or relatives don have brand x: think about the mobile phone market in the late 1990’s – chances are you owned a Nokia. Now ,for the majority of readers, it will be an Apple Iphone or a Samsung (possibly Hauwei if you’re in China)
“No ship is unsinkable” – Thomas Andrews
The ‘Titanic’ of which Thomas Andrews was speaking was the ultimate example of brand failure. The reputation of the unsinkable ship cast a bright light on all the White Star company’s vessels. Truly an aspirational brand, and certainly a lot less so only days later when the vessel sank to the bottom of the ocean. There are other examples of top brands that collapsed almost overnight due to one big mistake, but this is rarely the method in which a brand dies, rather brands fall to ‘a death by a thousand cuts’
In the same way we expect our medical operations to be conducted by qualified surgeons, and at a good restaurant we expect the kitchen staff to be trained and led by a serious chef, our customers expect a certain level of quality from our products not just in the content but also in the delivery.
Imagine a hospital with a reputation for patients dying during routine procedures, or a restaurant where one in three times the customers experience severe food poisoning; would you choose to be the next diner or patient?
In each of these cases it could only be one or two bad staff members, but the bad reputation will carry to the entire organisation. This is the same for franchise organisations. For all the many benefits of a franchise there comes with it the risk that your reputation is not entirely your own and the responsibility to protect that reputation no just for yourself but for all the franchisees under the same umbrella.
The educational industry
In our industry of education, where we have already worked to ensure the highest quality of our provided content, there really is own one way we can exceed or fail to meet our customers’ expectations – in the delivery.
That is the reason that we at ISSA our so insistent that our programs are delivered by trainers who have been certified by us. By ensuring that the delivery quality is equal to the high content quality we have crafted for each of our programs we also ensure that our brand (and your reputation as a franchisee) is maintained and elevated.
The advantages of this are clear – better reputation means happier customers, more referrals, more repeat business, and an enhance status in your community. The disadvantages are also clear, and because those disadvantages impact not just you but every franchisee we have no option other than to end the relationship and distance ourselves from any operator who does not stick to the rules and whose disregard for their own business quality risks damaging the business of others.
In addition to delivering an inferior service to their customers franchisees who use non accredited trainers will discover they don’t have access to the full range of our resources and (without regret) their agreement will be cancelled.
In the same way that you wouldn’t eat in a restaurant with a bad reputation or choose to have surgery in a hospital that did not train its surgeons well, we should never consider allowing our customers children to be trained by people who are unqualified to do so.
Perhaps you are thinking this is a very negative article, but you would be mistaken. As one of our franchisees this article is the best thing you have read all day! Here is why:
Your business reputation is being elevated everyday by all the other franchisees
That reputation is being defended aggressively by ISSA and that benefits your business
Brand reputation is a living entity, and we are all working together to evolve it positively
Your business is part of a successful, stable, and aspirational brand
Getting new trainers accredited is easy, and a sign that your business is growing successfully
You are not in this alone, you are part of an army of franchisees with a common purpose
We have got your back! Let’s “Thrive Success” together!
A Master of Social skills will often find outcomes that benefit everyone involved and not just themselves. It is for this reason that they are so often in high demand as business partners, and especially by those who have done business with them before. It should therefore be unsurprising to discover that one of our most fundamental foundation stones – The ISSA Pre Post testing system – is a perfect example of a Win! Win! Win! Solution.
The ISSA Pre Post testing system ensures that your customers have the optimal experience…
…which in in turn increases your sales…
…which in turn increases our customer base…
…increased volume of high quality of customer data allows us to tailor and fine tune our courses…
…which in turn means your customers receive an ever-improving service quality alongside the immediate feedback they receive about their child’s progress…
…which in turn ensures that your customers have the optimal experience…
The BIG First Shot
The first ‘Win!’, and perhaps the most important is the improved learning experience of our students. It has been long acknowledged that learning can be optimised by testing before the content is even taught. The very act of challenging yourself sets mental anchors, upon which you can fix new learning, and draws attention to what you already know and what you would like to know. It acts as a neural primer and an external motivator, and all this happens without the need for someone to tell you it should. Pre-testing is therefore even more effective for children, who engage with it naturally, than for adults who are at risk of overthinking what should be an automatic process.
If you have ever watched a young child learning to walk, it is a constant process of pre and post testing with each stage of progression. The ‘Win!’ here is obvious – enhanced learning experience, a greater sense of achievement, and visible progression through the material all contribute to our student’s improvement and enjoyment throughout the learning process.
How customer experience shapes your business
‘Win!’ number two is also about customer experience but in this case the customer who is paying you not the customer you are delivering to. As so many before you have learned the real customer you have to impress enough that they will purchase from you again is the one who is paying the money, in this case the parents. There is a reason that sports and music have grading systems and award certificates of achievement alongside those of participation. Those certificates will mean something to the parents long after the children have forgotten the skills they were awarded for! The Pre Post test subsequent follow up give parents exactly the ‘Win!’ they are looking for.
Stay authentic
With all that said, modern parents are more sophisticated consumers than their predecessors. The questions they asked are better informed and their ability to acquire enough knowledge in a short time to access the quality of the services they are being provided has been exponentially enhanced by the internet. Authenticity is the keyword for businesses that wanted to sell products to parents for their children. It is no longer enough to tell a parent that their child is doing well, they want to see evidence that their child is doing a well and that you are delivering on what you promised. The Pre Post test clearly demonstrates progression and form a perfect framework for feedback and parental discussions; and that of course is ‘Win!’ number three for you as a franchisee – greater customer transparency and satisfaction combined with a clear framework for feedback will benefit you in terms of both reputation and time management.
Customer Feedback cycle and quality orientation
Of course ‘win!’ number four is also for the franchisees: as well as saving you time in preparing feedback for your customers the Pre Post test just saved you both time and money on your marketing as well. Let us quickly explain (the full version is in the marketing guide) why the Pre Post test is such a powerful tool in this regard. Your good customers are the ones who come back and buy again, but your best customers are the ones who also bring new customers to you for the future…
Proofing the outcome
…if only the parents of your students had physical proof of their children’s improvement that they could proudly show their friends, and if only this was combined with stories of excellent customer service, great teaching, effective feedback, and a follow up strategy that says ‘we care about your children’…
Put it this way – if I saw a certificate for first place I would be impressed but it might end their in the absence of context, but if my friend shows me a video of their child defeating a seemingly superior opponent and they say its all down to the great coaching from company X, then my kids are definitely going to company X! – can you think of any parents who care any less than this when it comes to their child’s education and long-term success?
Give prospects what they really need
The Pre Post test is your personal honey trap to bring in new, enthusiastic, and pre-qualified leads that are already 80% of the way to becoming new sales!
On the subject of saving time: ‘Win!’ number 6 is for the guys at ISSA head office who can see at a glance in children on our programs as a whole or on one specific program are progressing as expected. Through the Pre Post test we receive immediate red flags when courses aren’t working and we can offer feedback and retraining to help franchisees and their staff back on track.
And lets not forget the big one: ‘Win!’ number 7 is for every one of our franchises and all of their future customers because the large amount of information we received from 10’s of thousands of Pre Post test across the world means we can constantly up date and improve our products; which is great for everybody.
The Pre Post Testing system is:
Good for the children
Great for the parents
Demonstrates your effectiveness as a trainer
Reduces the time needed for feedback conversations
Increases the chances of repeat and referral customers
Helps us to help you achieve the optimal delivery standards
Helps us to improve our products for you and your customers
Did you take the Pre test before you read this article?
If not, maybe you will do the next one now you know how important it is.
How many times have you seen an advert that promises success or at very least the opportunity of success for very little time, very little effort and with very little training required? Most of us wont even be able to remember how many we have seen today because social media is flooded with them. While I cannot say for sure that such opportunities do not exist, I can at least tell you that I am yet to come across one that really works as well or as easily as promised. The worst of these are out and out cons, and even the very best of them follow the basic formula for success and so the advertising campaign is simply a way to throw their net wide, which they need to, because and let us be honest here; if every opportunity was as good and as easy as it is made out to be then they wouldn’t need to advertise.
Every organisation that offers a short cut to success assumes that you, their customer, is suggestable and susceptible and this is not a good starting point for a business relationship. When you sign up to a new project, opportunity, or scheme there is always one thing that should be put out there front and centre; and if it is not run, run away as fast as you can. Trust us when we say there is no magic bullet and no secret to success; well except for this one…
There is a very simple formula for success in almost any activity whether that activity is measured in sales, medals, or simply in self-improvement:
OUTCOME = PROCESS EFFICIENCY X FOCUSED TIME
Process efficiency
Not exactly a bombshell, is it? But it is one of the most overlooked and underrated equations the world. It is also not quite a simple as it looks, because that ‘PROCESS EFFICACY’ multiplier can be impacted by a real wide range of factors dependent on activity or industry and not all of them will be in your control. Those factors that do fall under your control (the ones that you can take action on to improve) will improve in a direct relation to the amount of ‘FOCUS TIME’ that you devote to improving them.
Now this is where third parties can add real value to you and your process. If you are fortunate enough to work with people who already know the ‘best practice’ or who can guide you to improved ‘PROCESS EFFIENCY’ without you having to go through the painful process of making and learning from your own mistakes. You process efficiency with improve massively and rapidly. This among other reasons is why many of you are already working with us and other external ‘expert’ organisations.
My earlier criticism of some organisations that promise success is they want you to assume that it is this factor alone that determines your outcomes, but in reality it is not ‘PROCESS EFFICIENCY’ but ‘FOCUS TIME’ than it the real indicator of likely long-term success. It is true to say that ‘Process EFFICIENCY’ can be improved but nothing more than the application of ‘FOCUSED TIME’ (after this is what experience is). This is not working smart, we are always well advised to learn from others where possible, and while some of us are well suited to be pioneers, it is a hard road and, most of us are not.
Focused time
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that the opposite relationship does not exist. No increase in ‘PROCESS EFFICIENCY’ will ever impact the ‘FOCUSED TIME’. The former is a force multiplier for the second – or to put it is really blunt terms: if you were the best salesman in the history of the world, but you never ever spoke to a customer your total number of sales will still be zero. By contrast if you were the very worst sales person in the world (provided your product actually makes sense and has a market of potential customers) if you devote enough ‘FOCUSED TIME’ you will make sales.
We have all heard the expression that Sales is ‘a numbers game’. Rarely has there been something more true. Now, don’t misunderstand me, ‘PROCESS EFFICIENCY’ is often the factor that separates the good from the average, and the great from the good, but as we have explained (whether you choose to work hard or to work smart) ‘PROCESS EFFICIENCY’ itself is largely an outcome of ‘FOCUSED TIME’ is a subordinate equation.
So, there it is; the magic bullet; the secret to success, fame and glory; and the worst kept secret in the world: In order to ‘Thrive Success’ in this or any other industry (or life pursuit) all you really need to do is apply significant ‘FOCUSED TIME’ to your pursuit and to improving your ‘PROCESS EFFICIENCY’; or to put it in the more common vernacular: work really hard!
To borrow from the late great Don Shula “To be successful’ all you have to do is work half days; you can work the first twelve hours or the second twelve hours.”
Just imagine your business idea failed because you did work hard enough, and then someone with half your ability became a millionaire using the same ides simply because they worked harder. There are thousands of stories about people who had exactly that experience except they never get told and no one remember names. Your attitude determines your altitude, and you can’t ‘Thrive Success’ without putting in the hard work. If anyone tells you any different, they are trying to sell you something, and its not something you want to buy! But maybe you can still learn something from their example because… you know… at least they are putting the work in and one that aspect I can’t fault them!
For anyone who is familiar with us, and too be honest for anyone who has access to google, it is a poorly guarded secret that Johannes and I are both strongly involved in the sport of fencing. Fencing itself is a great potential metaphor for much of what ISSA does especially in its work with younger children. So, given this reality, it is hardly a surprise that one of the questions we are most commonly asked is why do we have a ‘Skateboarding Panda’ as a mascot?
Well, it is actually not as unlikely as it may first seem. When we were designing our brand, we always knew we wanted a mascot that was fun, instantly recognisable, a little unusual, but most importantly that embodied all the characteristics we are trying to teach children to have.
We discussed many different options for an activity or activities that our mascot could be performing and after a lot of consideration (and the inevitable agonising decision to not go with fencing) we eventually settled on skateboarding. Let me explain why: we wanted to highlight four areas that we feel are extremely important for childhood development and long-term success and each of them are perfectly embodied by skateboarding and skateboarders.
Our variation of the four C’s of childhood development are perfectly embodied in this sport:
The 4 Mighty Superpowers of Success
Courage
This one is fairly obvious. In a sport where improvement has to come at the price of repeated failure and failure comes with the additional penalty of bumps and bruises; it is as Winston Churchill might has put it ‘it is the courage to continue that counts’. Beyond this there is a more important reason why courage is the first C on our list (even though it normally doesn’t appear elsewhere); it is during the early years of life we learn to interact with the world and those around us who occupy it, it is a combination of curiosity and courage that brings us too nearly everything else.
Collaboration
Even before we find methods of effective communication with are able to collaborate with others, sometimes this is an active partnership and sometimes it is passive. We all collaborated with our parents when we learned to stand up and walk. What they probably didn’t realise is that for us their collaboration was ongoing and not just during the times of active attention and communication. Skateboarders tend to ‘hang out’ in the same areas but not necessarily together, with many different groups occupying the same space and connected by a shared passion. Therefore, many of the technical aspects of skateboarding and nearly all of the more advanced manoeuvres come about through talking, observing, asking questions, being observed, getting feedback and receiving encouragement. Sounds like a pretty great learning environment to me.
Creativity
Creativity makes every list for education regardless of it being C’s or any other. In skateboarding, gymnastics, and even in fencing (as well as many other, perhaps all other pursuits) creativity adds value and is a hallmark characteristic of those at the top of their fields. The creative process can e alone or a collaboration and it certainly requires courage to do something new, or to go beyond the previously assumed limits. Creativity or more accurately creative thought processes (Edward De Bono may have called this lateral thinking) is at the core of problem solving, innovation, and nearly all the progressions that have built the modern world. Creativity is our way of introducing a little chaos into our worlds in order to progress it.
Confidence
Where there is a little chaos there must always be a little harmony to balance with it. The term ‘quiet confidence’ is one of my favourites (and is becoming rarer in a social media world where everyone is saying look at me). Imagine the confidence required to take on some of those tricks in skateboarding at the highest level; consider some of those athletes are barely teenagers; and remember that not so long ago they were starting out and falling off their boards just trying to go in a straight line. This is a wonderful thing about skateboarding as a metaphor for early education: that first big confidence building moment is one of achieving perfect balance!
Confidence is a gradual process that builds from very small successes too grand achievements. It comes from a sense of achievement, from knowing that you have worked hard and that you are ready, and it can be encouraged by those around you at no cost to them. Confidence (particularly self-confidence based on the right factors) is the best thing we can help a child to develop in their earliest years.
So skateboarding became the activity of choice for our mascot, but the next question was who or what should be doing the skateboarding. This as it turned out was an easy choice. Aside from eating and sleeping (two things that we all enjoy) pandas are famous for playing, it is one of the reasons why so many tourists flock to panda sanctuaries every year to see them climb, rolling, and generally playing both alone and with each other. I cannot over emphasise the importance of play in the learning process for every age group, but especially in early years. Besides, who doesn’t love Pandas!
